Alex Hardy

So YouTube started displaying advertisements on video clips in the US a week ago. Before long, this will roll out everywhere. The first question on my mind is what took them so long? Backlash be damned, I think this could be a small step towards something brilliant.

Sometimes their activities seem pretty random, but I’m going to go out on a limb and credit Google with having a Grand Plan. It doesn’t strike me as a coincidence that Adobe is adding H.264 support to Flash while YouTube is converting its entire library to H.264 (essentially for iPhone, but I digress).

Higher quality means higher operating costs (ie: storage and bandwidth), which Google will want to pay for somehow…

Google are in the business of selling advertisements

Call them what you want. Search Engine. Rival to Microsoft Office. Mapper. Google are in the business of selling advertisements. There’s a fundamental difference however with putting ads on YouTube and pay-per-click services like Adwords.

A search result is an abstract thing, a function of the engine which no one website can own. A video however, is the sole property of whoever made it. The current ad approach doesn’t seem to give due respect to the content creators.

Matt Harding, mentioned in the linked CNET article has a legitimate complaint. He should not only be able to choose whether to have adverts in his own content (even if no-ads means settling for low quality), but what adverts to allow. Existing services like Text Link Ads already provide this level of control.

Most importantly, he should get a piece of the action, damnit! His video has been viewed almost eight million times. Even if YouTube got the majority of revenue for providing the platform, as little as a $1 cut on a 1% clickthrough rate should send him almost $80,000. I think he’d feel much better about that.

A move like this could create a revolution in user created content. If an individual could make some pocket money (or even a living) from their creativity, then all sorts of new things are possible, not only in terms of variety but also production values.

Successes like Wine Library TV show us that niche audiences are the future. As Robert Llewellyn points out in his rather entertaining video blog, the missing link is how to make something self-sustaining. WLTV exists as a brand reinforcement exercise for an online wine shop, but ads may be the key for Joe Public.

When a car enthusiast can create his own Fifth Gear, when a gallery can create their own South Bank Show, that future will be here.

I’ve decided that before I take this website much further forward it needs to move. People often presume that having a dot com address is somehow bigger and better when registering a domain, but unless you are based in America it can send a misleading message.

I think the web design industry in the UK is bursting with creativity, but lags behind America in terms of community and entrepreneurial spirit (see Ryan Carson’s thoughts on the matter). For my part, placing my own efforts within a geographically-vague space doesn’t help.

So I have registered alex-hardy.co.uk. I’ll transition this site over to that domain in time, where I’ll set up permanent home. The prices of my services will be quoted in £GB pounds (with approximate $US dollar and € Euro conversions). It just seems more honest somehow.

This won’t happen overnight: I have made certain technical commitments to this domain and I need to experiment a little to make the move go as smoothly as possible. A bit of htaccess redirection should ensure that any bookmarks and links out there continue to work. My RSS feed URL will remain unchanged.

Now, I think I’ll go and have a cup of tea and a biscuit (cookie).

Based on the Hasbro toy line that initially captivated kids in the 1980s, director Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS finds two warring bands of shape-shifting alien robots renewing their intergalactic conflict on Earth. While the Decepticons, followers of the malevolent Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving), strive to take over the planet, the Autobots, led by the valiant Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), are intent on protecting humanity.

When young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers that his new car is really the Autobot Bumblebee (voiced by Mark Ryan), it sets the stage for a massive giant-robot showdown.

So I saw Transformers last night. I’d been dreading it: as a kid I played with the toys, read the comic, watched the cartoon. I was six years old when I saw the animated movie and cried when Optimus Prime died! In many ways Transformers was to me what Star Wars was to some of my friends.

So you can imagine my disgust when I heard that Michael “Pearl Harbour” Bay was directing it. Great, all Bay knows how to do it blow stuff up. He won’t give the characters their due, they’ll just be the threat that our human heroes are running away from. News of design decisions (the notorious flames on Prime, Bumblebee not being a VW Beetle) got fans all riled up…

Then good news started to appear. Peter Cullen would reprise his role of Prime, whose final design I really liked. Hugo Weaving would play Megatron, which I thought was a good choice. Dreamworks claimed the G1 characters’ personalities would be (somewhat) as we remembered them…

So what was it any good?

YES! It was a very entertaining summer blockbuster movie. Yes, there were redundant human characters and subplots. Yes, Optimus Prime’s role was mostly Mr Exposition. Yes, some of the characters were short-changed – mainly Megatron and Starscream. But you know what? It didn’t matter too much. This was a first film, and should be compared to the likes of X-Men 1. Its job was to create a reality in which these robots could exist. I expect more character development in future.

There were some nice little nods to the fans in dialogue and visuals. It was funny where it meant to be and exciting where it meant to be. My only criticism of the action set pieces was that some were a bit hard to follow.

Well done Mr Bay! I thought it was miles better than any comic book film I’ve seen since Batman Begins, or any blockbuster this year. Bring on the sequel!

[rating:4]

My theory for Transformers 2

I’ve made the text white because there are spoilers for the current movie. Select the text to read it:

Optimus Prime was wrong, Megatron is not dead. Why would absorbing their life source kill him?!? In the Laurentian Abyss, Megatron has been restored by the power of the AllSpark. He is stronger than ever and in possession of the AllSpark cube. He has the power to bestow life and build his army.

Meanwhile, Starscream returns to Earth at the head of a new squad of Decepticons (I’d like to see the seekers and Soundwave). He won’t give up leadership of the Decepticons without a fight.

Their power struggles culminate with Starscream either subjugated or dead, and Megatron will create his most terrible weapon: a gestalt (Menasor? Bruticus?) a skyscraper-sized monster which it will take the combined strength of Optimus Prime and his Autobots (original and newly arrived) and the humans to bring down.

Megatron will escape. In Transformers 3 he’ll hatch a plan to deceive the humans and turn them against the Autobots.

Any bets on how long it will take someone to copy this? I reckon MTV in six months.

“I pity da fool who doesn’t use Hitachi Data System Virtualisation.”

I’m in awe. That’s the wierdest thing I’ve seen in ages.

On a fairly quiet Friday afternoon, I took a little time out. I rummaged around and found an XP disc and serial and installed it on my work laptop with Boot Camp.

The installation went very smoothly:

1. Download Boot Camp
2. Run assistant
3. Burn Apple drivers CD
4. Partition hard drive
5. Restart and go through usual Windows install
6. Install Apple drivers

No problem with the display, nuthin. It even recognises the iSight camera. I’ve had a harder time setting up “normal” PCs… Sony I’m looking at you.

So the Mac Vs. Windows debate is Officially Over. For me at least. PC peeps, I’m having my apple flavoured cake and eating yours too.

Now I have it though, what do I do? I installed it for three work reasons: browser testing, Sage Job Costing and Zinc. Obviously Half Life 2 is as-good-as-bought, but what else? Anyone?

Myself, Steph, and some of my colleagues from the Foundry completed the Bupa Great Manchester Run yesterday morning. It felt harder than last time (mostly because it was much warmer this year), but we still managed to beat last year’s time. Steph was my drill instructor, forcing me to keep running when I really wanted to walk for a moment at 7k…

I clocked in at 1 hour, 41 seconds. Next year I want to break that hour barrier…

I’d like to thank everyone who sponsored me this year. I’ve raised £311.17 (including Gift Aid) so far for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. It’s not too late to make a contribution: my Justgiving page is still live.

We had a lot of fun, I’d recommend it to anyone.

I’ve given in to peer pressure and joined Facebook. It strikes me as a bit of a cross between Friends Reunited and MySpace. I guess that means I’ll have to stick my photies on there as well from now on

Steph tells me that she’s going to “poke” me. Not sure I like the sound of that…

Strange thoughts enter my head from time to time… Today, while working on a client presentation it occurred to me that if there isn’t a compilation album for predictable event music then there should be. I have some suggestions for inclusion:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey theme (Also sprach Zarathustra) - Richard Strauss
2. Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams
3. Moving On Up - M People
4. Rocky theme - Bill Conti
5. Simply The Best - Tina Turner
6. Star Wars theme - John Williams
7. The Final Countdown - Europe
8. The Launch - DJ Jean
9. The Only Way Is Up - Yazz
10. Things Can Only Get Better - D:Ream

Any other ideas? Hopefully if we can get this album made and some royalties to George Lucas he’ll no longer feel compelled to milk Star Wars dry…

Looking at my blog, it appears that I’ve had a bit of a lapse in posting this last week or so. I can only blame it on sunshine and good times (not so much the boogie). It makes me think about consistency though…

For a website to be worthwhile it should be updated on a frequent basis, or a general schedule. People quickly stop returning if they find nothing new of interest. So I thought I’d set myself a schedule that I can try to keep to from now on. It goes like this:

Once a week (most likely Monday)

A fairly substantial post on a subject relevant to design, development or interactive media in general.

Once a week (most likely Friday)

A post about something I find inspirational.

Random Ramblings

I will also post my thoughts here and there outside of this routine, but I think a little bit of self-imposed structure will do me and this site good.